Banking

Episode 461: No. 9 The Black Belt Warning: The Real Dangers of Large Policy Loans and How to Avoid Lapse Tax

July 3, 2026 by Not Your Average Financial Podcast

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In this episode, we ask:

Have we gone mad here?
Should we save more?
Should we just hope the market cooperates?
What is the four step process for the black belt?
What discipline is required to handle large loan balances?
What is the most important business in the world?
Should premiums and income match?
What is the black belt strategy?
Is it a black belt for a reason?
Would you like to start with capturing your monthly cashflow with No. 1 The White Belt?
Would you like to work with the most important people in your life, No. 2 The Yellow Belt?
Would you like to climb up and out on eliminating debt with No. 3 The Orange Belt?
Would you like to strategize to protect your retirement and business with No. 4 the Red Belt?
Would you like to structure a cash flow system with No. 5 the Green Belt?
Would you like to tackle massive expenses with No. 6 the Purple Belt?
Would you like to bring the generations along and up with No. 7 the Brown Belt?
Would you like to rise to cash flow mastery with No. 8 the Black Belt?
How does this actually look in practice?
How about some case studies?
Is the black belt a set it and forget it strategy?
Can the policy loans get quite large?
What happens if the loans are not repaid?
Will the policy collapse?
What is taxable as ordinary income?
What is phantom income?
What happens to the death benefit?
How can you prevent your warehouse from being destroyed?
Who are you working with to protect your wealth?
What did Nelson Nash say in Becoming Your Own Banker?
Why do they use whole life insurance as tier one capital?
What are the key takeaways?
Would you like to meet with Mark Willis, CFP®?

Episode 460: No. 8 The Black Belt Strategy: Expand Your Banking System Until It Handles 100% of Your Income

June 26, 2026 by Not Your Average Financial Podcast

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In this episode, we ask:

Have you tied on your belt?
What is happening with the CPI?
Where is worker confidence listed with ABRI?
What is the median savings for people in the U.S.?
What age bracket is buying whole life insurance in droves?
What is the black belt?
Are you leaking wealth?
Is your wealth working for you or someone else?
Would you like to start with capturing your monthly cashflow with No. 1 The White Belt?
Would you like to work with the most important people in your life, No. 2 The Yellow Belt?
Would you like to climb up and out on eliminating debt with No. 3 The Orange Belt?
Would you like to strategize to protect your retirement and business with No. 4 the Red Belt?
Would you like to structure a cash flow system with No. 5 the Green Belt?
Would you like to tackle massive expenses with No. 6 the Purple Belt?
Would you like to bring the generations along and up with No. 7 the Brown Belt?
What did Nelson Nash say?
What happens to ALL of your money?
What does the bank do with your money?
Can your system accommodate your income?
Have you read Becoming Your Banker by Nelson Nash?
What will wreck your margins?
What is theft from yourself?
What about opportunity cost?
Who pays retail?
Where does your money live?
What is bank-owned life insurance (BOLI)?
How much life insurance do banks purchase?
How much of that banking function do you want to control?
How do we turn our headwind into a tailwind?
How do you live on less than you make?
What is the aim?
Can you expand?
Should your premium match your income?
What did Jim Conrad say in his dollar diagram?
What would happen if…?
How does the black belt work at scale?
Can you finance every big transaction in your life?
How do you eliminate the dreaded wealth transfers?
Who has the discipline for this?
Is this a set it and forget it plan?
How about some examples?
Who is sleeping better?
Who treats his policies like a family office command center?
Do you have a repayment strategy?
Do you have windfalls?
Who has self-control?
Who has patience?
When does the power come?
What is the significant danger to this strategy?
Could the policy trigger a surrender or lapse?
What is phantom income?
Who is trained and able to engineer policies for you?
What about business growth?
What about legacy?
Would you like to meet with Mark?

Episode 458: No. 6 The Purple Belt: How to Finance Massive Annual Expenses

June 12, 2026 by Not Your Average Financial Podcast

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In this episode, we ask:

Why is the consumer sentiment rating in the basement?
What is projected to run dry?
What are people voting with their wallet for?
Would you like to begin with capturing your monthly cashflow with No. 1 The White Belt?
Would you like to continue on with the most important people in your life, No. 2 The Yellow Belt?
Would you like to climb up and out on eliminating debt with No. 3 The Orange Belt?
Would you like to review strategies to protect your retirement and business with No. 4 the Red Belt?
Would you like to architect a cash flow system with No. 5 the Green Belt?
Is this for the faint of heart?
Are you at the intermediate or advanced level?
What about uninterrupted compounding?
Are you a business owner?
How about an example?
How big are your checks to the I.R.S. every year?
What is growing year after year?
How about private school tuition?
What about Amazon sellers?
Does a policy loan have to be repaid?
What about property taxes?
What about property and casualty insurance premiums?
What about charitable pledges?
What about major annual business operating expenses?
How does one pay off a giant loan?
Should everyone listening to this do a purple belt strategy?
What happens when a loan meets or exceeds cash value?
What about the sale or 1031 exchange of real estate?
What about receiving a substantial inheritance?
What about large bonuses or commissions?
What about the sale of intellectual property?
What about receiving a lump sum?
What about extra income?
What carries real risk?
What is the Plan B?
What are the serious consequences?
How do we work to make sure the loan never threatens the contract?
Is your money working full throttle?
What about steady, predictable growth that you can control?
Is that big expense dead weight?
How might you benefit from the cash flowing through your life?
What did Nelson Nash say?
Do you control the financing function of your life?
What did Pamela Yellen say?
Can you weather the storms that are coming?
What are the takeaways?
Would you like to meet with Mark?
Would you like to join our FREE! Not Your Average Financial Community?

Episode 450: The Tardus Income Snowball and Bank On Yourself® – Are They Your Financial Game Genie? with Ben Berry

April 17, 2026 by Not Your Average Financial Podcast

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In this episode, we ask:

Who is Ben Berry?
Would you like to check out Episode 397?
What is Tardus Wealth Strategies?
Would you like to hear Episode 376?
How does the Bank on Yourself tool integrate with the Income Snowball?
Do you remember Nintendo, back in the day?
Do you remember the Game Genie?
Why is control so important in wealth creation?
What are the headwinds working against your money?
Would you like to view video and/or Subscribe on the YouTube page?
How might we think and learn about money differently?
What is a myth?
What can Wall Street legally claim?
What does it mean to change the environment where your money lives?
Who wants the wind at your back?
Is this going to take me all the way to the end?
Will I make more than that in my stocks?
What about the payout or withdrawal rate?
When will passive income exceed your living expenses?
What are the options?
What is a “MELOC,” and how does it differ from a HELOC?
What did Mark Twain say?
How many questions are involved in a whole life insurance loan?
How do you take a HELOC?
What kind of impact would non-direct recognition loans have?
Are you constantly breaking the compounding of your growth?
What is the “eighth wonder of the world”?
What breaks compound growth?
What one little glitch could be the difference between success and failure?
What are the wrong tools?
Is it a cheap knock off?
Are you taking on unnecessary risk?
What becomes more expensive as you get older?
What won’t work with the income snowball?
What about building capital?
How about moving to stable, long-term assets?
What are the paths to getting started?
When is the liquidity ready to deploy?
What about building with monthly cash flow?
Do you need to lock money away for forty years?
What asset can you build right away?
What instantly multiplies your family’s legacy?
What will improve?
What will happen to your lifestyle?
What will happen to your demeanor?
What are the risks of the income snowball?
Who is doing the due diligence?
What is Plan A? Plan B? Plan C?
What do you need to pay attention to?
Who is on your team?
Would you like to reach out to Ben at bencberry@gmail.com?

Ben Berry is the owner of Berry Financial Services, LLC, where he helps individuals, families, and business owners take back control of their financial lives. As a Bank On Yourself® Professional and Safe Money Specialist, Ben focuses on building predictable, tax-advantaged wealth strategies designed to support long-term security and generational impact. His approach integrates advanced business planning, life insurance solutions, contingency capital, and asset-mapping to create clear, customized financial pathways. Known for translating complex concepts into practical guidance, Ben equips clients to make confident decisions in an uncertain world. He is passionate about education, relationships, and helping people build wealth they can depend on.

Episode 433: NEW BOOK! Part 1 – Bank On Yourself® Origins and Why Now? with Pamela Yellen, Brian Kay and Tim Austin

December 19, 2025 by Not Your Average Financial Podcast

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In this episode, we ask:

How can you build wealth safely and predictably?
Who is Pamela Yellen?
Who is Brian Kay?
Who is Tim Austin?
Would you like to go to bankonyourselfbook.com to get the new book?
What’s Pamela’s story?
How did Pamela meet Brian and Tim?
What’s Brian’s story?
Should you turn over your financial independence to other parties?
Should you become your own source of financing?
Should you recapture the interest you have paid to other sources?
Should you be careful with borrowing and debt?
How did Brian meet Tim?
Can paying for college be an affordable reality without taking unnecessary risks?
What’s Tim’s story?
What was happening in the 1980s?
What are the strategies that worked in the 1940s, 1950s, 1960s and 1970s?
How is risk finicky?
Do you have to have debt to get where you want to go?
Do you have to be in the market to be successful?
What about uncertainty?
What about anticipation and preparation?
How might we crisis-proof our finances?
What is the average household debt?
How many people are behind on paying their debt?
What percent of retirees, age 66-71 have debt?
What about medical emergencies?
How many would be able to cover their expenses if they had a one-week delay on their paycheck?
Why is this book necessary?
What are the action items?
Will you join us next week for Part 2?

Episode 422: The Bank World’s Final Boss: How to Actually End the Fed

October 3, 2025 by Not Your Average Financial Podcast

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In this episode, we ask:

Would you like to read and review our new book, The Business Fortress: How to Grow, Protect and Exit Your Business?
Would you like to give us feedback on the FREE! Not Your Average Financial Community?
How could the system be fixed?
When was the Federal Reserve started?
What happened in 1913?
What has happened since?
What happened in 2008?
What happened to the money supply during COVID from 2020-2022?
What about inflation?
What about compound interest?
Why have young couple delayed buying homes and having kids?
What about the booms and busts?
What are the mental and physical health issues tied to these issues?
Is this a rigged game?
Is this a matter of life and death?
How do we peg the dollar back to market rates and gold?
Can anyone swap dollars for gold?
Can we reduce electronic liabilities?
What about blockchain?
What about the FDIC?
What about bailouts?
What about better scrutiny?
What are the bank’s financials?
Who is holding true reserves?
What is fractional reserve banking?
What do most people NOT realize?
Is stable money ahead?
What are other economists saying?
What about Ludvig von Mises?
What do the bank’s panics look like now?
What did America use before 1913?
Why did they call it the Gilded Age?
What is self regulating?
What has gone up 50x?
How does this apply to personal action?
How do Bank on Yourself® type life insurance policies fit into this?
How about some case studies?
What about the distortion?
What about the dot com and the housing bubbles?
What did the later audits reveal?
Does a gold standard eliminate this?
Does arbitrage correct it?
What would keep prices stable?
What is a hidden tax on the poorest among us?
What about the Fed’s role in 1929?
What happened in 1971?
What happened to the currency in Turkey?
What could work?
What happens as the treasuries mature?
What’s the cultural impact?
What are the takeaways?

Episode 421: Economic Overheating from the Fed

September 26, 2025 by Not Your Average Financial Podcast

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In this episode, we ask:

Are you a small or mid-sized business owner?
Would you like to read and review our new book, The Business Fortress: How to Grow, Protect and Exit Your Business?
What is the big storm brewing?
What about the U.S.’s addiction to short term debt?
What about money printing?
What about rising bond yields?
What about a ballooning national debt?
What’s coming next?
How can you put yourself in the driver’s seat?
What happened in 2008?
What is quantitative easing (QE)?
How much did they print?!
What about QE infinity and beyond?
What about the generational impact?
Who won?
Who lost?
Is the system rigged?
How much is the U.S. National Debt?
When will social security run out?
What about Medicare costs?
What about interest on the national debt?
What about the six-month treasury bills?
Is the government running out of lenders?
Who is the last one standing?
What happens when they print money?
What about foreign buyers?
What about retail inflation?
What about real estate?
Do you have time to spot the signals and act in advance?
How do whole life insurance policy loans act as a hedge against inflation?
Could the dollar strengthen?
What would happen to whole life insurance policy holders?
Who is qualified to structure your plan appropriately and correctly?
What are the takeaways?
Who needs to hear this episode?

Episode 420: The Hidden Power of Protection: How Avoiding Market Losses Can Supercharge Your Retirement

September 19, 2025 by Not Your Average Financial Podcast

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In this episode, we ask:

Have you ever been on a roller coaster that dropped so steeply that your stomach flipped, and just when you think it’s over…?
What if there was a way to enjoy the upward momentum of the market without all of the terrifying drops?
Are market events and crashes black swan events?
If someone was stealing 20% of your cash out of your bank every couple of years, what would you do?
Who would move the money to another bank?
When are you ever not going to need money?
Is your strategy vital, over the long term?
Do you have a sense of the major events in recent market history?
Who is losing money?
How often is the market really dropping? What are the implications of this?
What about the sequence of returns risk?
How might one tame volatility?
What about loss aversion?
Is your retirement vaporizing because of someone’s whims on Wall St.?
What about panic during market downturns?
How does one live on reduced retirement income?
If you lose 50%, do you need 50% or 100% to rebound just to get back to even?
What are the major market crashes of recent history?
Could anybody hold on throughout all of that madness?
What about beginners? What about the advanced?
What is the key insight to all of this?
What about preserving your principal?
What about compound growth?
What about having a financial fortress?
What are some one things to try?
What do these insights mean for you and for your long-term financial life?
Are you confident in having a guarantee in your portfolio?
What is the shield against the storm?
What is the ease of a fixed indexed annuity?
Am I doing what I need to do with my money?
Would you like to read and review our new book, The Business Fortress: How to Grow, Protect and Exit Your Business?
What are some next steps and takeaways?

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Episode 406: Avoid the Pitfalls of Infinite Banking Knockoffs with Brandon Neely

June 13, 2025 by Not Your Average Financial Podcast

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In this episode, we ask:

Is it a knockoff?
Can you imagine this?
Does it provide security or chaos?
Who is Brandon Neely?
What did Brandon learn at the I.B.C. Think Tank?
What changes have happened in the last few years?
What impact does Nelson Nash’s work, Becoming Your Own Banker still have?
What are the challenges of maintaining Nelson Nash’s original vision in today’s financial landscape?
What about Pamela Yellen’s effort to preserve Nelson Nash’s ideas through the Bank on Yourself® Professional program?
What is the biggest risk with a whole life products?
Do you have an advisor who is giving you bad advice?
Would you like to hear Episode 253?
What makes Brandon unique?
What changed Brandon’s life?
What’s the history?
What were Nelson’s strengths?
What should every business owner read?
What did Pamela Yellen notice?
What’s the risk of listening to a social media infotainer on Infinite Banking?
What has Brandon seen with clients who have fallen for IULs from an advisor claiming Infinite Banking expertise?
What about the IP and trademark of Bank on Yourself®?
What do red flags sound like?
What are some examples?
What’s important to know?
Why is working with a Bank on Yourself Profressional® crucial?
Would you like to hear Episode 95 and Episode 96?
What are the takeaways?

Brandon Neely is an entrepreneur, Profit First and Bank On Yourself® Professional, and the co-host of Wealth Wisdom Financial Podcast with his wife Amanda Neely.

They founded and managed Overflow Coffee Bar, L3C from 2008 through 2018. Now, they share their experiential knowledge through podcasting and through developing personalized financial strategies for individuals and couples and profitability strategies for businesses.

Wealth Wisdom Financial
Book a Call with Brandon Neely

Episode 399: How to Pay for Everything in Life

April 25, 2025 by Not Your Average Financial Podcast

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In this episode, we ask:

Would you like to join us live for the Bank on Yourself® Rescue Your Retirement Bootcamp on May 6th, 2025, 1PM-5PM ET?
What deals are you making?
What does it take to start a bank?
Where do banks keep their capital?
What is Tier 1 capital?
Who needs a liquid, regular parking spot for savings?
How does the money continue to grow, even while you’re using it?
What about major wealth transfers?
What are people saying?
Why work with us?